"Link, are you alright? What's going on?" Ilia looks at me, worriedly. But to be honest, I'm just as stumped about this as she is. After that voice rang out in my head, I was on the ground in a matter of mere seconds. I am not even sure how I got there.
It felt almost like on instinct I was on the ground in a fetal position in front of the ladder leading to my house; but that is one thing that just can't be. I've been called the son of Farore, the chosen bearer of the Triforce of Courage. It might've felt like instinct, but that's all it was. That's all it could've been. A charade. Nothing more, nothing less. I don't know how or by who, but it has to have been a charade. What else could it have been?
But why can't I shake this feeling of anxiety that's burning in my gut like a forest fire? Sigh. It seems like this kind of thing has been happening more and more since those lovely nightmares from hell began.
I woke up in the middle of the night about a month ago, clutching my throat and sweating like you wouldn't believe. After that, there wasn't a chance in Heaven or on Earth that I was going back to bed. It was just too hard, and I couldn't have the experience of being utterly stumped by everything going on or completely crushed by losing everything all in one night. It was too confusing and it always gave me what felt like the mother of all headaches afterwards. Ha, falling asleep again. Fat chance.
On the upside, though, our house has been so clean, it's pretty much an O.C.D.'s paradise.
But back on the topic at hand, I had the same feeling then, too. Paranoia and anxiety- like something is going to happen- have been pretty much bombarding me nonstop. So much so, in fact, that I'm dumbfounded that Princess Zelda hasn't chased me back to her castle yet for a 'conference' (those things could put insomniacs to sleep).
I suppose, though, this is getting me nowhere closer to figuring out what happened... Perhaps I should just wait until Ilia goes to bed and write Zelda. I know I'm asking for a snooze fest, but I can't figure this out on my own; and if I told anyone in Ordon, I'd just cause nothing but worry.
It looks like I was thinking a bit too long, though, because Ilia is standing in front of me, brows furrowed in confusion. I swoon loudly and dramatically fall to the ground, shaggy, blond hair flying. As I hold my throat with one hand and raise the other to the sun, Ilia giggles and rolls her eyes.
Ah, how I've missed that sound. Like the soothing wave of the ocean clearing the shore of its jagged edges, the sound of Ilia's peaceful giggling has put me at ease more times than I can count. Being near her and making her laugh reminds me that I can get through this.
My wife steps on my stomach with one foot and picks up a stick, rasing it above her head like a sword. She winks at me and grins mischieviously. Nayru, I should learn not to encourage her. Honestly, you'd think being a triforce bearer alone (even if it's just courage) would give me some extra wisdom (I wonder if Nayru's actually just holding out on me). I make loud groaning noises and she returns her attention to her stick once more.
"Behold! I am the Hero of Light, wielder of the Triforce of Courage. I have defeated this fell beast with the power of the goddesses. Bow down before me and my awesome power!" Ilia belows in a low voice, and I open my eyes to look at her, offended.
"I resent that statement, missy. I have never told anyone to bow down before the might of my glorious power (note: it's glorious, not awesome), and I am not a fell beast!" I turn my chin up as much as I can to try and play arrogant. She picks up on it and makes a face as if to tell me I already am arrogant and I don't need to try any harder than just being myself and alive to prove it. We both chuckle as I stand up and lead her to Epona.
"Don't call me missy, loser! You are so a fell beast; you're being one right now! Stay away, or I shall call upon the power of the goddesses and ride away into the sunset with the beautiful Queen Zelda." I stick my tounge out at her before I lift her up onto the brown mare, making a fake grimace at her comment.
"Missy, you know the Ice Queen would have none of that. She has her new pretty boy for that! Speaking of which, I'm not exactly in favor of the Queen's new King, you know. Something about him feels off. I'd tell her about it, but I'd rather not get kicked out of Hyrule for good, and she seems warmer since they married. I mean, it's a tad late to break up their 'wonderful' relationship, a year after the fact. I really wish she'd have told me before the marriage." My smirk transforms into a glaring competition with the ground; nearly resulting with my face in a wall. King Baleren showed up in Zelda's throne room about a year and a half ago, announcing himself as a Noble seeking marriage. In her perspective, he wasn't such a bad guy. In fact, he managed to do something only I had been capable of accomplishing as of late, he made her laugh. And it's not that Zelda doesn't laugh, she just hasn't been herslef since the Twilight Incedent. Not many people have been able to bring her out of herself. I'm not saying Baleren is evil, just that he's hiding something, and I don't feel safe leaving Zelda with him until I know what it is. Until that time, I'm just leaving it at disapproval and keep it at that.
"Yes, Link, we all understand your concerns (you've definitely made it hard not to). Just let her make her mistakes, though. If it turns out he really was hiding something, I'm sure Impa'll be on him in a second. Not to mention her group of advisors, and the rest of the Nobles will be on him in a second. He's essentially backed himself into a corner, and there's almost nothing, short of powerful magic, that'll reverse his situation. Which, by the way, he's either fiegned stupidity, or he really sucks at magic in general. There's nothing to worry about." Ilia rolls her eyes at my continued grimace and just laughs because she knows that I suck at just walking away from things. I can do it when it counts, but nothing short of it counting will make me do it. Either way, it isn't evil intent he's hiding I think, but it definitely makes me uncomfortable that he's hiding something.
We round the corner into the small spring, and my muscles imediately begin to relax themselves, almost like some invisible switch in my head had been turned off and I can forget about my eventful morning. Almost.
My beautiful wife hops down from her side saddle position and flicks out a horse brush from some unknown location. I find it funny that she has that thing with her at almost all times and never misses an opportunity to give Epona a full brush-down. She's always been quite paranoid about the mare's health, and I think my battle with Gannon had pushed her off the deep end. Even though I had kept her in fairly good condition, she did have a couple scorch marks and Ilia really let me have it for that. It didn't help, either, that a couple arrows had whizzed past us and I hadn't really had th chance to wash her before returning home. I was essentially grounded from my horse by my own girlfriend for about three weeks, and herding the goats was a little bit harder in wolf form. Let me tell you, it's a good thing that Fado wasn't there to see that.
Back to reality, though, I turn to Ilia and move from my position in the middle of the spring to the secret entrance (she has yet to discover, by the way), and pick up a charm that looks similar to the one I recieved after she regained her memory.
"Hon, what's that?" My wife eyes me curiously and I just smile back at her. I am definitely loving the fact that I'm surprising her.
"Oh, just give it a second" I reply as I put the brown horse call to my lips and play a few otes from the song Midna taught me, called the Royal Twilight Family's Lament. It took a few months to just teach him to respond to that song, let alone come to the person who played it, so I let loose a gigantic sigh of relief when I saw the brown stallion whinny and prance up to Ilia and I.
"Without further ado, Rallin! I hope you don't mind, I had to name him something in order to effectively train 'im." I beamed at her, my aniticipation taking hold of me.
"Link, I told you if not nothing, then nothing expensive. I tell you this, and you get me something that blows almost every other possible gift out of the water. Thank you." Tears threating to spill, she looks over at me and just smiles extatically.
Your memories, Link. I need your memories. I'm hungry; so very very hungry!
Feed me, Hero of Light. Before it's too late.
Without warning, the darkness from my earlier collapse returns, and I'm on my way to meeting the ground once more before I can force myself to stay up.
Ilia did not need to a reminder of what happened not an hour and a half ago. The moment her husband's eyes glazed over slightly, she was under his arm, hoisting him up over her shoulder. Despite her best efforts to stay calm, panic spread through her as she gave Link a once over, checking for any injuries. Finding none, the ranch wife bit her lip in an effort to force out the terror threating to crush her heart into a million tiny pieces.
Not succeeding, she searched her mind frantically for a clue, an idea, a place to go, anything! 'Wait; a place to go?'Ilia thought. Realizing her only option, the frazzled ranch wife flung her husband over the new stallion and hopped on Epona, taking off like a bullet toward their neighbor's home.
'Rusl and Uli, Rusl and Uli, Rusl and Uli', she chanted, pleading to the goddesses that they knew what to do. Her knuckles turned white as they gripped onto the mare's reigns as she flew down the forested path past their house and into the rest of Ordon Village. Ilia was so distracted she nearly forgot to stop once she had reached the surprised couple's home.
Taking stock of the situation immediately, Rusl pushed himself off the ground and was in the process of carrying an unconscious Hero onto their living room couch as the ranch wife pushed herself into Uli's arms. No tears came out, of course, but that didn't stop the young wife from shaking as her neighbor held her comfortingly. She looked over the shoulder in front of her at her son, Colin, holding his baby sister in a daze and smiled at him reassuringly.
Rusl stalked back out of the door, one arm holding the other as it formed a fist in front of his mouth.
"Ilia, would you mind telling us how Link passed out?" the swordsman asked, furrowing his eyebrows as he attempted to concentrate on every word that was about to be said.
Nodding, the ranch wife began her tale of the previous morning as Rusl closed his eyes, humming and hawing every now and again. Towards the end, he opened one eye for a moment before closing it again and humming once more. None of this was adding up, and Uli stated this as much in a hushed tone meant for him. However, Ilia picked up on this and was about to ask something, when a crash came from inside the house.
The trio rushed inside, (with Rusl going in first, prepared for an attack,) before stopping short.
"Darn it! Sorry! I swear it was an accident..." Came a rather loud voice from beside the small sofa. The blond hero innocently stepped in front of the vase shards next to him and hid the blood steadily pouring from his mouth by scratching his cheek.
A/N:
Hey, everybody!
A special thanks goes to Frank Hunter, and Jane O'Callaghan for helping me immensly and reviewing, as well as James Birdsong for reviewing. You guys are awesome, and it was most appreciated.
Well, not much to say, actually. I wrote this and rewrote this at least three times, and let me tell you, the last part was a pain in the butt. I tried to fix the flow so it wouldn't be way too fast, but that whole seen where Link passes out in the end was supposed to be around twenty to thirty minutes, so I hope it came off as probably about that long.
Anywho, thanks a ton for reading and I do appreciate constructive criticism. I hope you all enjoyed, and thanks so much. I'm excited to work on this, and I hope I've interested you enough to keep you interested as well.
As for updates, they should probably take about a week each, if not a little longer. I have school and family, so I might not always be a week each, but for the most part I'm gonna try and stick to that until I find I need longer. Thanks!
N.A.
