Link woke up the next day, sun barely risen, with the herd of kids outside his house built in the Kokiri style: up in a tree. Yawning, stretching, he went over to the window to see what they were yelling about. The two brothers were out. "Link! You don't work at the ranch today, right?" Talo yelled up. Next to him, was his little brother Malo, looking bitter as usual. "Isn't it your day off?"
"Yes, I'm trying to sleep."
"You don't need to sleep! Come play with us!"
Oh well, he was up anyway.
By the time he had dressed, Beth had joined them, and the kids had found something else to yell about. "A sling shot?"
"Yeah," said Beth, "it's in my parents store."
"Can I buy it?" Talo asked.
"Do you have money?"
"No." Talo muttered.
"Then No."
"Can I trade you for it?"
"No!
"Can . . . We trade families?"
"NO!"
"Hi, Link." A forth voice whispered.
"Hey, Colin."
"I . . . uhm, do you want to go fishing? I made you this." He held up a fishing pole.
"Oh, wow, you made this?" It couldn't even be reeled, just a string on a pole; Link either didn't notice or didn't care. "Thank you."
"Do you like it?" Colin asked in his hushed voice. "I know you like fishing, and your last fishing pole broke when I was using it, and I'm still sorry."
"No, don't worry about that last fishing rod anymore, ok? I like this a lot better than what I had." Link genuinely did. He had made his last fishing pole during his hours of solitude on the ranch; and he had worked on it when he felt down. This had no bad feelings attached to it.
Talo, bored of arguing with Beth looked over human trade said, "I could make one of those real easily; it's nothing special." Colin blushed.
"You," muttered Malo, "can't even concentrate on something shiny for two seconds."
Talo turned back to Malo to argue with him (and Malo swore that his point was just as good as proved; Talo swore that Link wasn't shiny). But damage was already done. Colin stood there, looking at the half raw piece of wood and string he called a fishing line; he stood there sorry that was the best he could offer.
But Link smiled and asked:
"So when do you want to go fishing?"
Colin looked up at Link as though he'd been saved.
"I really can't for a few hours;" Colin said softly, "I have to water the pumpkins, you know? But after that, yeah, after that I can."
Talo, Malo, and Beth all looked over, jealous: in their eyes Link was the coolest person in the whole known world (about twenty people to them), and Colin failed to be awesome in every way they knew (approximately twelve ways). But Link was oblivious, letting Epona out of her pen, he hopped onto her back. Colin simply walked beside him into town.
"Oh Din's Fury," the mayor swore eyeing Epona, who should have been up with the goats, "Fado's the only one up at the ranch today, isn't he?"
"He's a good guy." Link offered.
"That's not my point, boy. Fado's a complete featherbrain. I don't even care if this gets back to him; he needs to get on the ball. You notice things¾not humans, you never notice human things, but you can at least figure nature and those goats out. Fado on the other hand--"
"Mr. Mayor," interjected Uli, Colin's Mother, who had joined Link and her son. "I know you don't care but, please; Fado's been known to cry over insults."
"It's the truth ma'am."
"And of course this is going to get back to him. This place is so small you could hear a child whisper from across the way."
Link nodded, "Yeah, how big is this place? Twenty-some feet?"
The mayor looked at Link like he was going to strike him, but Link smiled serenely. The mayor asked, "Shouldn't you all be working be working? How would you like to not have a day off, Link?"
"I'm alright, thank you."
"Actually, I have a favor to ask you, Link." Uli said. "Could you help my son and the others with sword-play? I know my husband's been teaching you for quite awhile, and as the woods become more and more dangerous . . ."
The mayor interjected, "Excellent suggestion, Uli."
"I was wondering," she continued, "if you'd want to teach the children some self defense techniques. If you can't for whatever reason, then don't feel any pressure to. I could just make Rusl do it."
"No, I can."
"Not going to try to find the Kokiri today, huh?" She smiled
"No, I have to prove to Rusl that I'm not crazy so he'll let me out of his sight for twenty-four hours. (Please don't tell him that's a goal of mine.)"
Uli shook her head, "Of course I won't, as long as you don't hurt yourself."
The Mayor stared him down. "You aren't going to turn into another Fado are you?"
Link thought for a moment, "I don't know; I'm not a seer."
The Mayor could have cried.
Far from up the path, winding to the ranch they heard a voice cry out. "Goat on the loose!" Indeed a goat was hurtling down the path as fast as it could, a wild look in it's eyes. Those around him fled, but Link took a defensive stance. The goat tried to get past him but he jumped in its way and braced for impact. The goat crashed into him, pushing him backwards; he took its full-moon horn in both hands, the creature squirming, off balancing; Link quickly moved his left foot back and turned his torso; arms and goat following. The goat rolled over, baa-ing.
"Are you sure you don't want to work at the ranch today?" Begged the mayor.
"I'm positive. See you 'round." He pet the goat which had stood up and come to it's senses. It had been so scared. The look in its eyes; it had been mad, crazy; he really shouldn't have stood in it's way. But wolves lived out in the forest, and it had been headed in that direction. It had sweated through it's blue coat too; it had put itself in danger. Something was happening in nature.
"Colin, could you walk this goat up to the ranch for me?"
"Sure." Colin piped. Uli smiled; something even as small as this would help Colin's self-esteem.
Of course Link trusted Colin; he trusted him more than the other kids to get things done (he didn't know why). But right now, he wanted to get back out into the forest, the direction the wind was now blowing from. The other kids were still there, and he wanted to make sure they were alright.
They weren't.
Talo and Beth were now hissy fighting over who would be a better fighter.
"It's not like you could rescue a princess!" Talo yelled.
"Well," Beth breathed. "It's not like half of royalty aren't men; I could go and rescue a prince."
"They have swords!" Yelled Talo.
Beth retorted, "They're princes, not fighters; they've probably never had to pick one up in their life!"
"They still have swords!"
"You," said Beth, shaking her fist, "don't even have a sword!"
"I-could-if-I-wanted-one!"
"Talo," Malo broke in, "You do want one and you still don't have one."
"I could use a slingshot!"
"You could use a branch, for play." Interrupted Link, making his presence known.
All three of them turned.
"Link;" Beth whined, "Can't I be a prince-rescuer?"
"I think--that's up to your parents." Link said cautiously.
"I have a branch now," Talo said, "It was over there."
Beth hurried over to the direction he found it, opposite where he pointed.
"Teach me how to fight," Talo commanded.
"I could just teach all of you how to fight."
"I have better things to do," Malo muttered.
"Like what? Complain?" Beth asked, returning with a comparably larger stick than Talo.
"I'm not bitter," said Malo. "I'm just hard to please."
Talo whined, "teach me to fight."
Link showed them how to do some simple slashes: horizontal slashes, vertical, how to use your hips to give force to your arms, how jump and bring the blade down on an adversary, and the three of them practiced on Link's increasingly pathetic scarecrow. Beth and Malo displayed certain spirit as they swung their sticks, but they lacked any form of skill. Upon seeing their inability wield even a stick, Link was happy that they had no reason to ever use their (lack of) skills.
"But when do we do this for real?" Asked Talo.
Link leaned back from Talo's enthusiastic stick swinging and said, "When something real comes along."
"What about," Malo asked, "A monkey?"
"Like the ones that eat our pumpkins?" Beth asked.
"Well, monkeys are real." Link noted, "But aren't they just hungry? Not exactly terrifying."
"Oh, oh, you just did it again." Talo pointed, "My dad was once telling us that it's a type of witchery to try to think like an animal. He said he was worried that you do that a lot."
"'Try to think like an animal?'" muttered Malo, "Link doesn't 'try.' What about that monkey? The one who has a pumpkin. Over there."
Beth and Talo looked over at the monkey sinking it's teeth into a pumpkin they had planted and raised in hopes of a pie. They watched it, abashed, for a full second before raising sticks and running pell-mell towards the simian. The monkey looked up and waited not even a millisecond before picking up and carrying the pumpkin away. Beth and Talo were after it that instant. And Malo simply stared ("You noticed the monkey too, right?") No, actually Link didn't; he had been imagining a world with stick-less children. Very peaceful.
Well, he brought this on himself. He whistled for his horse, managed to scale her tall shoulder, and set after them.
