Authoress: Hello, everybody! Chapter One is finally here! Oh, boy...You guys are gonna love this! I'll try to make it at LEAST as good as my Harvest Moon Fanfiction, but don't quit reading my stories if it doesn't turn out that way. Sometimes, I just have a slump when it comes to certain story lines---a writer's block, if you will. If it doesn't come out right, just give me a chance and I'll make it up to you all, 'kay?
Please don't think that I'm not a good Challenge Writer just because I goof up the first...er, wait, I forgot about Fairy Red's Fanfic...SECOND story! After all, good authoresses must have practice, no?
Hee heh...Smell you later!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER ONE
"Sleeping, Again?!"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It was a quaint little shop...Yes, shop. That's what it was, though Link had absolutely no way of knowing---seeing as how he had never been inside of it before. In fact, none of the surroundings registered to him; he could not even remember how he Still, the youth did have a strong bond of familiarity with each and every object around him. It felt as though he had passed by each of them for as long as he could remember, until each alien object soon formed the very fabric of his daily life.
Yes, indeed..."Shop" just fit the bill. He couldn't explain it. I mean, there were no price tags of any sort marked upon anything. No storage safes or merchants to be seen. It was as if he had lived it---the whole experience of the shop---and yet he had no former recollection of the palace at all. It just felt right
There were some common household wares that he was familiar with, though, inside the "shop". A big cooking pot---a cauldron, perhaps?---bubbled at the front off a deep-set fireplace. A few wicker chairs, a table, several chests, a countertop---even a pair of smithy's tongs used for handling hot metals...they all made the "shop" feel like home. Yet the numerous rune-decorated pouches and jars of colorful powders and herbs strewn upon the shelves cast a vivid image of something that was foreign...
...But his heart told him that all of it was home.
He looked around guiltily, making sure no one was there---exactly why he did, he was not sure---then pulled one of the wicker chairs over to a corner and plopped down in it. For some strange reason, Link held up his hand in front of him. Only, he it wasn't his hand. He couldn't put his finger on it (no pun intended), but there was something ODD about his hand. He held it in front of him, twisted it over---no, it had to be his hand (it was at least attached to his person, anyway).
Link could feel a sadness breaking out within himself. He trailed a finger of another gloved hand down the length of his palm, then methodically contracted the digits of the first until his fist was balled. The Hylain brought the hand to his chest, stroking it and gazing woefully at the floor. Finally, he heard himself speak.
Link...
Link...
Link...I...
...I wish I was brave like you...
Why was he talking about himself in third-person?
...Why can't I be as strong as you?
There with the third-person address, again! If he kept that up, Link decided that he'd have Princess Zelda stick him in the Royal Nuthouse---that is, if they HAD a Royal Nuthouse in Hyrule...and if Link could ever figure out where the heck he was so he could get BACK to the palace, anyway.
...Why...?
Link saw himself removed the glove. Sighing, he looked down as he flexed his hand...
...Then it struck him. Horror washed over his body and a chill went up his spine. He knew why his hand felt out-of-place before. Looking down, he found all of the proof that he needed...
...His hand...
...was ghostly pale!
"LINK!"
A shrill feminine voice snapped Link back to reality. He gazed up from his chair at the soup counter and met the feisty, scolding gaze of Princess Zelda.
"You fell asleep on me---AGAIN!" she chided, one hand placed defiantly on her hip and the other on the edge of her soup bowl. "Geez, if I had not awoken you, you would have been wearing your lunch!"
Link shook his head groggily and gazed down at his bowl. The now cold soup was filled up to the rim, coating a few careless hairs that had swayed to close to the surface. Zelda looked at him and wrinkled her nose.
"Eww...No offense, Link," she eyed him, "but only Octoroks can eat face-first. You'll drown yourself---Oh, Sir! Can we get another bowl of the soup, please?"
The clerk, who had been walking past them and drying a glass with a dishcloth, nodded. "Certainly, Milady!" The flustered peddler hurried off into the kitchen and left the two Hylian youths to talk.
"I'm sorry, Zel---AHHHhhhhh!" Link yawned.
Zelda propped the elbow of her free arm up on the counter and placed her hand on her friend's shoulder.
"Link, your little dozing periods have been going on like this for almost a month, now," she said. "Lately, your work at Smithy's Shop has been pitiful, and you can't even block the simplest of blows in weaponry practice! In fact, Link..."
She stared at him with soulful periwinkle eyes.
"...You haven't been yourself at all."
The blonde-haired boy could only grunt in reply. He was still trying to shake off the dregs of sleep from his last nap. He raised his arms and stretched them out as far as he could, then collapsed onto the bar again. The Hylian princess groaned in frustration and shook him---hard.
"Get up, Link!"
The boy was so tired that he could barely tilt his head to the side. But the moment he did so, he regretted it, because Zelda was standing up now---arms crossed, tapping her foot repeatedly.
"So you wish to sleep, eh?" she smirked. "You would rather renounce yourself to slumber than pay attention to your childhood friend, is that it?"
By this time, Link could tell Zelda was furious. If it had been any other situation, the boy would have been ducking for cover, because the only time that she was dead-calm (she was usually so hyper and cheery) was when she was about to blow her top. But Link was too tired to care. No one else seemed to notice the girl's anger---but, then again, only Link, Smithy, the King, and a few woefully unlucky knights had ever witnessed her temper...
...Of course, none of them in their rights minds would ever have tempted her again, because the Hylian princess' method of venting was...to put it frankly as possible...resorting to petty revenge. Nothing too bad, but her pranks were potent enough to keep people on her good side for a very LONG time...
"Well, if THAT is the case..." Link was still sort of blurry-eyed when it happened, but he managed to make out Zelda picking up his bowl of cold soup. The next thing he knew, she had yanked his hat off of his head (even an angry Zelda wouldn't have ruined a gift so dear to Link) and had dumped the entire bowl right onto his noggin. Link jumped up from his seat, knocking it to the floor with a clatter!, screaming and yelling like a guy being attacked by rampaging Cuckoos.
"By the goddesses, Zelda!" Link shrieked. "Are you trying to drown me?!"
Zelda simply smirked and clamped the bowl down onto the countertop. Lifting up a portion of broth-soaked hair from out of the youth's eyes, she giggled.
"Well, at least you won't be falling ASLEEP anytime soon!"
Link furrowed his brow at the young princess and blew a piece of hair out of his face, then slumped back against the counter. Zelda hopped down off of her stool.
"C'mon," she set the payment for her bill onto the counter, "let's go for a walk! Maybe the fresh air will clear your head."
Reluctantly, the legendary Hero forced himself off of the stool and staggered after her.
...About two minutes later...
"Okay, here's your---Hey!" a confused cook glanced around his empty restaurant. "The Princess forgot her soup!"
"So...Link..." Zelda began. "What's going on, anyway?"
Link sat nothing, both chose to continue walking up the road of the marketplace.
"Have you had a burn-out from your blacksmith's commissions?"
The boy chuckled and gave her a wry smile. "Zelda, you should know by now that I could never have a burn-out from the smithy."
"Yeah, I guess so---"
"GANGWAY!!!"
The duo stepped aside as a vendor made his way past them with a hay cart loaded to the hilt with farming goods. Cuckoos cackled from several cages as it zoomed past. Suddenly, a shrill voice sounded out from nowhere and the cart came to a stop. The horses in front reared up, knocking the farmhand holding the reins off of the seat. Another man grabbed the reins as a flash of red, white, and purple leapt from the seat and bounded up to them.
"Zelda!" the figure cried out, waving its arms. "Hello, LINK!!!"
The princess smiled---Link just gave a feeble nod.
"Why, if it isn't Malon!"
"Yup!" grinned the red-head as she dusted off her purple mosaic of a skirt. "I'm here delivering goods to the palace, again. You know how hectic it gets around time for the Picori Festival, don't'cha know!"
The elfin princess beamed and started chatting away with the other maiden. Link just wearily turned his head and plodded on up the path. Once those two get going, he thought, not even A MOBLIN can shut them up!
"Oh, Link! Wait up!" Malon called out. Link just ignored her and kept walking. "Geez...who spit in his cornflakes?"
Zelda gave another one of her world-famous concerned-ruler-turned-friend frowns.
"That is precisely what I was trying to figure out!"
Malon put her hands on her hips, as if she was thinking, then nodded in Link's direction. The other young woman got the message and the two off them took off running after their friend.
"Hey, Link---STOP ALREADY!!!"
The boy just sighed and stood there, waiting for them to catch up.
"Why'd the heck didja try t' go and leave us, man?" Malon fussed. "Since when did we ever do that t' YOU?"
"Like yesterday when you both thought you'd try to catch Ingo's pet kitten Muffin? Or how about last Tuesday when Din and her sisters went---"
"OKAY!" Zelda fumed. "We get it!"
"We're just worried about you, Grasshopper," chided Malon. "Ain't nothin' that can help that."
Link just let out another heavy sigh and shrugged. Here were the two best friends that he had in the entire world, who would have given anything to get him out of a bind. Frazzled and worn, he stared a them through exhausted cerulean orbs.
"Well, butter my butt and call me a biscuit---you've got bigger bags under your eyes than ol' Ingo's luggage when he goes on vacation!" Malon poked Link in the face gently. "You ain't been gettin' much SHUT-EYE, now, have you, Grasshopper?"
Link shook his head.
"Why, he almost fell face-first into his lunch today!"
"Really?" Malon studied Link for a moment, stringy fish-smelling hair and all. "But I thought he was already wearing it---"
"Oh, that's just where I tried to wake him up---but never you mind that!" Zelda turned to the country girl. "He's got bigger problems than having a soup-bath, anyway."
Malon thought for a moment. "Was it the workload at the smithy? I mean, he's had all of the work since his grandfather died---"
"No, I already thought of that...He loves the shop work, especially around the time of the Picori Festival, right now. I've seen him tired out before, but NEVER like this."
Malon glanced over at Link---the Hero weakly shook his head.
"Grasshopper," the red-head asked the boy, "what in the blue-blazes is wrong with you, eh?"
Suddenly, Malon clamped her hands over her mouth and winked at Zelda. Both girls then giggled maniacally at Link. The farmer's girl sidled up to the Hylian youth and grinned.
"Aww...! Has my wittle Grassy-hopper been sneaking out seeing a lady friend?" she grabbed hold of each of Link's cheeks and pinched, just like a big sister to a little brother. "C'mon, you can tell us! What's her name?"
"Malon, knock it OFF!" Link swatted her hands away. "I'm not dating anyone. I'm just..."
"Yeah---OOPS!"
A couple of little kids ran by, making the three friends jump to the side as they ran between them. Zelda lifted a hand to her mouth and giggled.
"Aww, isn't that cute?"
"Oh, what'cha talking about, Zelda?" Malon's hands found their way back to her hips again. "We run around like that all of the time."
"It's not that, Malon...I mean, it's those little children themselves."
"Well, I guess those brats are kinda cute---if you like young'uns, I suppose."
"They look like they are the exact same age when Link and I attended OUR first Picori Festival."
"Yeah," Malon cocked her head back and grinned, "let's hope theirs doesn't turn out like y'all's did!"
"Like ours..." Link rasped. "Vaati..."
Zelda shook her head. Malon spoke up. "To think that such a witty-bitty Picori like him could cause such a great, big MESS---"
"It's MINISH!!!" Link screamed with hidden vitality. Both girls jumped back.
"Hey...Malon?" a voice hollered out. "What's going on---"
"NOTHIN', Dad!" the red-head called out as the two men rolled up in the hay cart. "Link's just feelin' a little down in the dumps, you know?"
"Oh, sorry..." Talon flashed a sympathetic smile at the boy, then turned back to his daughter. "Just meet us up at the palace after you three get done a-yakking here..." he nodded to each of them. "...Princess Zelda...Link..."
Malon nodded in returned and waved the farmers on. As the cart sped out of sight, she and the princess drew closer to Link.
"What was that all about, man?" Malon growled. "There wasn't any reason to go and rip my head off!"
Link shook his head weakly. He blinked---his eyes were getting blurry now.
"I'm sor...sorry Ma...Malon---Urgh!"
"LINK!!!" as the body of their friend pitched forward, the Hylian maidens rushed forward to catch him before he hit the ground. Grunting, the two of them struggled to get the lad to his feet.
"Link---LINK!" Zelda shouted.
"Isn't any use, Zel!" Malon glowered and raised one of Link's arms over her head. "He's done gone and fainted."
"Oh, my...Link!"
"Dagnabit, Grasshopper! Wake up!"
"Link!"
"Grasshopper!"
"LINK!!!"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Authoress: Hope you liked it! I used the nickname Romani (Malon look-alike from Terminia) gave Link in "The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask" for N64. I think it adds a little flair to Malon's character---plus, having just ANYONE and EVERYONE address the protagonist as "Link" would be too redundant...even if it IS his name. I just like adding a little depth to a story---make it sorta realistic, in a way.
Oh, well...On to Chapter TWO!!!