Link knew that the fastest way to get to get to Telma's bar would be by using Midna to warp there (apparently she had something really important to tell him and he needed to get his butt over there right now) but instead he decided to call over Epona and ride her there. Well, that had been the plan, but somewhere along the way he had ended up sitting on a small hill in Hyrule field with her grazing next to him. He just felt like he had been moving so much lately, always having something to do, the next piece to the puzzle, but he just wanted a few seconds to just relax before going headfirst into the next chapter, to find the Mirror of Twilight.
He still remembered when he had first seen Epona. It had been just a little while after she was born, so she was just a foal. He had been invited along with all the other kids to go and see her. When he had first laid his eyes on her, he just knew that she was his. Link couldn't remember exactly, but he figured that he must have been thinking about what to name her since the whole village was going to get to put their two cents in on what she should be called. The world had just sprung from his mouth.
Epona.
The small foal head had lifted up and on shaky legs she had walked over to Link. Now here they were, fifteen some odd years later, saving the world together. Ilia always said she was really close to Epona, because they were both girls, and Link knew there was a lot of truth to that, she had doted on Epona since she was young, and the love was reciprocated. But Link always felt like he knew Epona, like they had been together for longer than a few years, like they had known each other for over a lifetime.
But Link figured that it was just because he loved her so much.
After a little bit he knew that they had to get going, so he hopped on her and went in the direction of Telma's bar, practically flying across the green grass.
Link entered the bar, pleased to see that Telma had made it back safely. He caught Louise peering at him from behind her leg, and he had to resist saying an audible thank you to her, instead he just tried to express it with his eyes.
"A few of my friends are here, they're just in the other room." Telma explained. "We're part of a small group, a group fighting for Hyrule. You'll fit right in." She said and gave a small wink. Link walked into the room and was introduced to everyone (who's names he forget almost right away) There was Aisha, a hardcore looking girl, Shad, a studious man with glasses, and a guy with armor covering his face. Apparently there as another member of their group, a man named Auru, who wasn't present currently.
Link headed out so that he could try and find out where exactly he needed to go into order to find the Twilight mirror, dropping a fish next to the cat on his way out, who merely looked up at him with a look that said 'about time.'
After that Link went out around the back of the city, exiting it to a small field where he was supposed to meet the Hero's Shade and learn a new move. Since he had never had any formal training it really was for the best, he mostly just moved on instinct, and he knew someday instinct would not be good enough. However, before Link could make it to where the golden wolf was he got distracted by a little girl in a small field of flowers wearing a dress with a little sun umbrella. She looked up as his footsteps grew closer.
"Oh hello there!" She gave a smile. "You look like you're a giant green grasshopper! Did you dress up like that just for me?" She asked, tilting her head to the side.
"Ahm, no, these are just my normal clothes." He said blushing a bit, he had always thought they looked pretty cool, he never thought about it, but they were a rather grasshopper green color. He could swear he heard Midna laughing.
"My name's Princess Agitha, and I've invited all the golden bugs to my ball! But they must have gotten lost somewhere along the way, so I'm searching for them." She said. "Ooooh, could you help me find all the bugs?" For a second Link looked at her, but saw someone else. It was a tall boy, probably in his late teens, talking about a sanctuary for bugs. He shook his head to get the image out.
"Sure, I guess. How many bugs did you, uh, invite?" He asked, and her face lit up.
"24! I'll be in my castle, so when you find some come right away!" She said before kneeling on the flowers again, searching for more bugs.
"Why do I always let myself get dragged into this kind of stuff?" Link said to himself with a sigh.
"Maybe it's because you're an idiot." Midna piped up.
"I didn't ask for your advice." Link said.
"Well you got it anyway." She replied with a cheeky grin, which brought out a smile on Link's face as well. After that Link ended up skipping his 'lesson.' And By pure luck ran into Auru, who was on top of a super high tower thing at Lake Hylia. He gave him a note so that he could make his way to the desert.
"By the way," Link said as he started to leave. "…I've been meaning to ask somebody. Why's this place called Lake Hylia?"
"I don't know, boy. There's a lot of old wives tales on it." He said, looking at the lake. " You might want to ask Shad next time you see him, that's more his area of expertise." Link nodded and left to Lanayru. (a/n author chooses to skip boring details)
Lanayru turned out to be one huge desert, with only one actual building which was on the complete other side of the place. Like several miles away. Oh, and the cherry ontop, there were sandfish that wanted to eat him. Yay.
For what it was worth, Midna wasn't too thrilled about the whole running-for-your-life-across-the-desert deal either, so when Link decided to take a break on one of the only part of the land that wasn't pure sand and was made of something solid, she didn't complain. They were only halfway across the desert, the sun had set, and Link had decided to make a small fire for the night, eating some dried fish he'd packed.
"How did this place become a desert?" He asked Midna, who was in her shadow form next to Link. She shrugged.
"Beats me, I'm from the Twilight, remember?" She said and reclined back in mid air.
"I think it used to be a desert." He said with surprising conviction.
"Yeah?" Midna said half heartedly, not really interested in a history lesson.
"Yeah, like maybe it even used to have a lot of grass and stuff, and probably more building, maybe even a temple in the center or something." He said as he tried to picture the place looking like the images that had come into his head. Some were of a place like Farons woods almost, other of a desert like this, but with more structures.
"Sounds like you've spent a lot of time on the subject." Midna said, inspecting one of her nails.
"Actually, I haven't." Link said a perplexed look on his face. Midna gave a shrug. "When I was younger Ilia was really into history on the land and stuff, I probably just picked up on it from her." He gave a yawn.
"Well, enough on the purpose of life, get some sleep, you're no use to me if you're died from exhaustion. I'll wake you up if we get attacked." Link gave a small nod before laying down on the rock, his pack as a pillow, and tried to fall into the darkness of sleep.
!Please read!
(A/N this next part is an omit from the story. This is going off of an event in Oracle of Seasons, a game that is in a completely separate timeline than the one I'm using, so, it wouldn't work with my story. However, I still wanted to write it, so here a little extra tid bit that didn't really happen.
Link was running from the sand fish things. He was alive, that was good. He wasn't looking where he was going, that was bad. So, when he fell into the giant crack int eh middle of Lanayru desert, it was just his luck, and he just continued to fall down. Somewhere between screaming like a sissy and his body hitting the eventual ground, he lost consciousness.
Miles under the crust in a small pocket of beneath Lanayru was Suburbia. A place with so many volcanoes and red dirt and so hot to a Hylian it would appear as if a post apocalyptic Hyrule. On a beach, facing the lava sea, sat a girl, one of the many Suburbians. Like all Suburbians her skin was pure black, not a brown, but the color of obsidian., and her eyes were pure white. She wore the customary cloak with a hood to hide her face, as was traditional in their land.
Her cloak was yellow, unlike the typical blues and greens, and she had a key around her neck and a rare star shaped oar on her belt, a bright red bow on her hood helping her to stick out further. He was on the beach that day, and found the green dressed boy laying on the beach, badly beat up.
"Link." The girl said, and she reached out to touch his face, but her hand came back before coming in contact with his skin. Rosa knew this man, but when she knew him he had been a boy. A boy who had saved their land from destruction using his rod of seasons to lift up the temple of season which had crashed down from the world above.
But that had been many years ago, millenias ago, and he had always said he could come back for her, to go on another date with her. But his obviously wasn't the same man, or if it was by some miracle, him being here was a mistake. She quickly took him to shelter and patched him up, then found one of the hidden portals to the above ground place, and put him in, tears in her eyes.
When Link came to he found himself with bandages covering him, a few burns on his arms, and in the spring in Faron woods.
"Midna?" He called out.
"What?" She asked, coming out of his shadow.
"What happened?" He asked, his thought memory being of falling in Lanaryru desert. Midna threw up her hands slightly.
"Beats me, you fell and I abandoned ship. Then suddenly you just popped up here. I was meaning to ask you the same question." Link looked at himself, trying to figure out who would be this kind to him… that lived in the ground. Link found in one of his pockets a star shaped piece of stone, perplexed he look for some way to identify whose it was.
He never did find out, but he ended up keeping the rock, and tying a red ribbon around it.
(a/n yeah, that's the new chapter. I hope you guys liked it, there's a lot more to come, like, I mean a ton more, and reviews and such are my fuel for writing, so… please do all that good stuff!)