Okay, time for chapter 2!
Not far from the village, a pack of goats were wandering around, eating grass, and doing other goat-related matters. One the goats rose it's head up, sensing something. The other goats turned to it, wondering what was the matter. The lead goat broke out into a cold sweat as it heard a certain sound. It hadn't heard this sound in a long time, but the goat could never forget it.
The goats all turned in the direction of the sound to see a large brown horse charging at them, and on her back was a familiar young blonde haired man, grinning evilly.
"Hey boys, remember us?" Link shouted to the goats.
The goats all baaed loudly in sync, their bodies were trembling as tears ran down their eyes. They all turned tail and ran as Link and Epona followed after them.
The villagers of Ordon village all watched as the goats ran right into the village, mindful not to knock anymore stuff over then they usually did. They all ran into their ranch pen, and the last one to run in used his mouth to close the door behind him.
"Well I'll be…" said one of the villagers.
"Only one guy can herd the goats like that…" said another.
Needless to say, Link's return was the talk of the town. Many of them asked questions about what where he had gone, or what he had seen, or in the case of some of the younger guys what the ladies were like in other places. Link tried to answer as best he could while remaining vague about his reasons for leaving.
A few days went by, and eventually things were finally starting to wind down to normal.
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"HOOOIII! LIIIINK!"
Link groaned as he forced himself out of bed, almost stumbling out in the process.
"Alright I'm up I'm up…" Link muttered. He quickly got dressed and climbed down the ladder to see Rusl calling out to him.
"Hey Link, the goats need to be herded back into the pen, can you give us a hand?"
"Yeah, sure, I just need to get Epona and I'll be… be…."
Link's head lowered as he fell asleep again, a bubble rising out from his nose.
"All this time and you're still a heavy sleeper." Rusl said. He pulled out his sword and poked Link's bubble, causing it to pop and instantly wake Link up.
"Gah! Okay, I'm going!"" Link said, rushing off to go track down Epona.
It didn't take long for Link to find Epona. In a small lake not too far outside the village known as Ordon Spring. It was home to the spirit of light Ordona, a mystical being who helped Link begin his quest to save Hyrule.
Usually though, this was where Ilia often escorted Epona to in order to clean and heal the horse. Sure enough when Link reached the spring, there was Epona, snorting and swinging her tail about, while his childhood friend was standing by her, softly brushing the horse's hair. She still wore the tent dress from yesterday, along with some long brown pants, and was humming a soft little tune as she brushed Epona.
Link, having not seen Ilia since their little encounter back at Bo's house, gulped nervously as he walked up to the girl and horse.
"H-Hey, Ilia?"
Ilia just stopped her cleaning. She stood still and just stared at Epona.
"…she's really been through a lot since you left… she has a few injuries and scars I don't remember her having…" Ilia muttered.
"Sorry…" Link said, "We got into a few mishaps during the time we were out."
"…don't apologize to me, apologize to Epona." Ilia said, going back to tending Epona's injuries.
"S-So… I take it you're still upset about me leaving…?" Link asked pointlessly, already knowing the answer.
"…upset? Why what ever gave you that idea…?" Ilia asked darkly, her hand was clenched and crushed the brush she was holding in half. Link and Epona's faces paled.
"Ilia…" Link said, "I heard about how upset you were about me leaving… I… had some important things to do and…"
"A-And you thought you should just up and leave without telling anyone?" Ilia asked, she was clearly starting to tremble. "Did you not even care what anyone would think if you just ran off for good?!"
"I… I didn't want anyone finding out, because I didn't know when, or if, I'd be back…" Link said. "I was afraid you might try and stop me…"
"….E-Epona should be good and ready now…" Ilia said. She slowly waddled out from the lake, got onto dry land, and with some effort, leaned down and rug the water out from her pants. "Just go easier on her okay...?"
"Okay…" Link said as he watched her waddle slowly off back to the village before going to retrieve Epona.
A group of monkeys were lounging around the house of one of the villagers. They had managed to scare the family away and claimed the place as their own. One was hanging by his tail making loud ook sounds, one was using his feet to pick up bananas and squeezing them until the fruit shot into his mouth, one was parading around in a dress he found, and a rather big monkey was sleeping on a throne he built with lumber from the house, snoring loudly. The banana-eating monkey casually threw a banana peel through the air and it landed in some nearby bushes.
"Ewww-!" said a voice from the bushes, but the voice was quickly silenced. The monkeys looked oddly at the bushes, only to resume their activities two seconds later.
"Quiet down Beth, they'll hear you!" Link said in a loud whisper from behind the bushes. Along with him were Talo, Beth, Colin and Malo.
Beth pulled the peel off her head muttered "Ugh, I hate those filthy smell apes…"
"Ha, yer such a girl!" Talo said.
"Oh yeah?" Beth said, "Why don't you go chat with them, I bet you stupid, dirty, smelly boys would get along great!"
"Who you calling dirty?!"
"P-Please stop fighting so loudly… at least fight quietly…" Colin said nervously.
"….can we just get on with this?" Malo asked, not even bothering to have to duck due to his tiny size.
"Okay, let's get started with Operation: Monkey See Monkey Gone!" Link said.
"….do you have a backup plan with a less-stupid name?" Malo asked, glancing to the side.
"Did you guys bring the stuff I asked for?" Link asked, ignoring Malo.
"Yep!" Talo said proudly, holding up a beehive still attached to a branch.
"I got this…" Colin said, pulling out a jar of molasses.
"Perfect, now we just need some of these guys…" Link said, pulling out a sack of small little bug-like creatures.
"Eh? What are they?" Beth asked.
"….aren't those Bomblings?" Malo asked. He paused for a few seconds and muttered "Good plan…"
As the monkeys continued to create a riot, the one dangling by his tail noticed a Bombling walking right up to them. All the monkeys stopped their activities and stared down at it in confusion. The biggest one noticed it had a jar of black stuff tied to it. The monkeys all looked to each other in confusion, not aware of what it actually was.
Then it happened, the Bombling exploded. The explosion was very weak, but left the monkeys covered in the molasses from head to toe. They all stood still and blankly, not able to comprehend what just happened.
The biggest monkey forced himself up, angry about being covered in the sticky goo and shouted out. The others followed suit, shouting and thrashing about.
Then came down the beehive.
The hive broke upon hitting the ground, unleashing a huge swarm of bees. The monkeys' eyes all shrunk down to the size of dots as the swarm loomed overhead, sensed the sweet nectar the monkeys were covered in, and then dived down.
Needless to say, it didn't take too long before the sticky monkeys ran out of the village, being pursued by the bees.
"Whoo!" Talo said, raising his fists in triumph. "Monkey crisis averted!"
"T-That worked perfectly, a deadly bee weapon!" Colin said, his eyes sparkling.
"We can always count on you to handle any crazy animal situations Link!" Beth said, putting her hands to her cheeks and blushing.
"…well, I guess I have no choice." Malo muttered before turning and walking off.
"Eh, where you going Malo?" Link asked.
"…since we've scared off the monkey hoard, shouldn't we celebrate?" Malo said, holding up a bag of rupees. "I'll treat…"
Link and the kids all grinned and followed after Malo.
At the Ordon marketplace, some traveling merchants had set up stands and carriages, eager to sell their supplies to the villagers. One particular older looking man had set up a table of various sweets and pastries.
"Hey Tort!" shouted a merchant nearby the old man, "How's business been?"
"Oh, very good." Tort said, scratching his rather massive forehead. "I didn't use to come back here as often as I do now. I relay on a repeat customer who loves me and the wife's cooking. In fact, judging from the sun, she should be coming right about now."
"Hello Mr. Trot!" said a voice. Tort looked over to see Ilia, clad in a large spring dress and hat. She had a large basket of goods in one hand and waving with the other. She waddled slowly up to Tort's stand and looked over his supply.
"Ilia, my dear!" Tort said, "Going shopping for dinner tonight?"
"Yes, father's been getting bored of fish every night, so I purchased some cucco meat. I'm hoping to try out a new ingredient, like tangerines to go with it." She said, sporting a small smile.
"So, are you here for your usual, two dozen sweet rolls?" he asked, lifting up a large box and placing it down on the stand. Ilia just stared at the box longingly, she could feel her mouth water at the thought.
"Ooooh yes!" she said. "Are you sure you can't sell me the recipe?"
"Sorry, but no dice." chuckled Tort. "With your cooking skills you'd put me out of business!"
As Ilia was about to pay for the sweet rolls, she heard someone shout "Make way! Vanquishers of monkeys coming!"
Ilia blinked and looked over at Talo, raising a wooden sword and swinging it around, while Beth, Colin, Malo and Link were following.
"Hey, quit swinging around that sword, you're gonna hurt someone!" Link said.
"Ha, a true warrior like me won't hurt any innocent perso-"
It was then that Talo realized he just accidently poked Link in the stomach with his sword.
"You little brat!" Link said grabbing Talo's cheeks and stretching them. Beth took that chance to jump on Link's back, knocking the three of them over. With Talo and Beth having fallen on top of Link's back, the three of them started laughing.
Ilia just watched how bright and happy Link was, it gave her the faintest of smiles. She snapped out of it quickly when she heard Tort nervously shout "O-Oh hello Mr. Malo!"
"….ello." Malo said, staring up at Tort. "How's your business handling Tort?"
"V-very good Mr. Malo!" Tort said sweating, "I wanted to thank you again for helping to plot out our trade route through Hyrule!"
"….good." he looked up at Ilia, who broke out into a bit of a sweat. Malo just stared up at her before nodding. "Ms. Ilia." He then walked off to go speak with the other merchants.
Ilia stood blankly as Link, Beth, Talo and Colin all walked up along side her. "I gotta wonder how that little guy could become such a huge influence on the Hylian trade system…" Link said. He turned to Ilia who was doing her best to hide her face under her hat.
"H-Hey Ilia, I like your new hat, where'd you get it?" Link asked.
"Um… it was…" Ilia stammered.
"Ms. Ilia?" asked Tort, "Did you still want your regular order?"
Link grinned, "Pastries huh? You've always liked sweet stuff as a kid."
Ilia then gulped and blurted out "Ah… um… A-Actually I'd just like to get three sweet rolls today Mr. Tort!"
Tort paused for a few seconds before flinching in terror, a wave of wrinkles ran up his forehead "T-THREE?!"
"Is something wrong…?" Link asked.
"Well… it's… I…"
Luckily for Ilia, she didn't have to say anything else as a loud horn started to bellow out across the village. Everyone stopped their activities and became motionless. All sound had died out aside from the loud horn bellowing across the village.
"T-They're back…" Beth said.
"N-No way!" Talo said, "Is it already that time?!"
"Already what time?" Link asked in confusion.
"It's the Black Jackals…" muttered Tort, adjusting his glasses. "We're in deep trouble…"
