Chapter 2 : A Hairy Situation
After a few days of resting his body from the previous adventure, Link mustered up the courage to let Zelda know he was ready for his next trial. Zelda carefully inspected Link curiously and bit her lip lightly as she eyed him top to bottom.
"You... really don't have to you know? After last time I understand if you'd like to stop…" Zelda muttered, still feeling somewhat uneasy.
Link shot her a confused look.
His princess had been so eager to have him test more of her experiments not so long ago. Could it be that she still felt guilty about the previous result? Although it had been a bit of an inconvenience, it turned out to be a once in a lifetime experience.
An experience that could one day be shared by many other Hylians and possibly even other races. The benefits from her research could be groundbreaking... if the princess was able to pinpoint exactly what caused the changes within him...
A lightbulb went off in his head.
Link broke out into a grin as he set his plan into motion. "Aww shucks princess… what happened to the smarty pants Zelda that I know and love?" he said, fully attempting to tease her. "I mean… if you feel your experiments are doomed for failure, then I guess it just won't work… I surmise it'd be best to dispose of them immediately… " he said as he began walking towards the potion shelf..
Needless to say, Zelda was surprised by his change in attitude, shocked even. Her surprised expression quickly turned into an angry pout
She had worked weeks on her calculations! Her experiments… failure? How… how dare he!
"Excuse me? I'll have you know my experiments are a result of WEEKS of hard work! Although I'm not certain what effects each bottle will have… I can definitely guarantee that they are NOT doomed for failure!" she said with confidence.
Link smiled. "Thats right, have confidence in your work milady," he said with a big smile as he turned to the shelf with the potions, reached for an amber looking concoction, removed the lid, and downed the contents in seconds.
It took Zelda a bit to process the fact that her knight had swallowed all of the potion, she immediately ran for her research journal and quickly ran to his side.
"A little warning wouldn't hurt!" she yelled, more startled than angry. "... so… how does it taste?" Zelda asked fully concerned. She flipped through the pages in her journal, found a new page, and wrote a new entry in.
"It's- not bad, but not great either." Link tried to describe the flavor. He knew all too well from experience that some elixirs never tasted great, but they definitely got the job done. "I've certainly had worse, I can tell you that much."
"I bet you have," Zelda added, recalling her memories from before the tragedy took place.. "Now we just have to wait for the potion to make it's magic effects known…"
"Ah… lucky me... Goddess… please help me," he whispered to himself.
An hour later, both hero and princess kept waiting for any result to manifest itself.
"It appears we had a dud in the midst" mumbled Link as he stretched his body fully. Sitting down for extended periods of time was not something he was used to. He'd rather be out and about. There was nothing fulfilling about sitting around. Nothing interesting to do.
Zelda twirled her golden locks around her finger, although it was rather unimportant, she remembered that it'd been awhile since she had trimmed her hair. Last time she'd done it had been weeks before the champions, her appointed knight and herself decided to engage Calamity Ganon's forces together.
Zelda turned to Link, who had begun taking yet another nap, and stared at his own caramel locks. Link had come back from the chamber of resurrection far longer than herself, yet his hair looked the same, as if it hadn't grown a single day. Was it an effect of the Shrine of Resurrection?
Although… she inspected his head a bit closer, and noticed that Link's hair binder was not properly placed. It wasn't holding Link's hair as it usually did. From the looks of it, he's steadily getting shaggier than his normal cut? I… I hope I'm just imagining things… She just chalked it up to her mind playing tricks on her.
She decided to leave the room for just a bit to gather her thoughts and perhaps lay down on their loft to brainstorm. She placed her journal back on the desk beside it. As soon as her body touched the covers she heard Link let out a surprised yelp. She peered down from the second floor. To her surprise and astonishment, Link's hair was nearly as long as her own, and still growing rapidly!
She quickly ran back to him. Panicked, she tried to find a set of shears and attempted to tame his hair. As soon as she cut a single lock it grew back with almost twice the length it previously was.
"I'm so sorry Link," Zelda said, looking a bit disappointed that she couldn't help her knight more. "I think we're going to have to wait this one out too. I hope to Hylia that this isn't going to last as long as the last one."
"Don't worry I'm not angry or anything, just do what you can to contain it. We'll just have to clean this up later." Link said, giving Zelda a bit of his courage to calm her.
After a few hours the house floor was filled with Link's caramel colored locks. Zelda finally managed to cut his hair back to his usual shoulder length style.
"I don't mean to be picky… but don't forget to cut it shorter underneath please" Link reminded her. " I don't need to pull it all back."
"Okay, *princess*, oh wait sorry, I meant to say *Milady*" Zelda laughed jokingly.
Link laughed sarcastically. "Oh haha, very funny 'my dear knight'" he teased.
Both blondes shared a laugh and gave each other a hug.
"I think we're done for now, so...what to do with all this hair?"
"We could either bring it to the village and sell it, or the option would be to throw it into the ocean.." Link said as he was thinking.
"I'd rather make a few rupees than to pollute the sea." Zelda said flatly. Being a scholar, she knows of the potential effects of environmental damage, and would rather not ruin the world she loves so much.
After a short visit into town, they returned to the house after selling all the excess hair. Surprisingly the shops paid top rupee for the material.
"This will help continue my research," Zelda beamed. "I can buy more ingredients and do it right next time."
"You want to do more? Whatever floats your boat, Zelda…" Link commented. "Although we should finish what we started first before we're up to our arms in more potions."
"Right. Now… are you feeling well enough to try another potion today?" she enquired. "This one didn't seem to have much for backlash…"
"Ummm… sure why not. What's the worst that could happen to me?" he replies. " You can pick this time. The sooner we're done with this the better."
"Alright, hero." she giggles. Zelda lifts a bottle from the table and hands it to Link. Again, he pulled the stopper and handed it to her. He takes a seat in his chair, and braces himself for the effect.
Nothing happened. Nothing he could feel, weird or otherwise.
"Must be another dud." Link mumbled. "Not that I'm complaining, but I was expecting something more…"
"We'll this is just part of experimenting," Zelda informed him "You have trial and error. Wins and losses. Its nothing out of the ordinary for something to not happen."
"Alrighty, then. I think two is more than enough for the day. I'm going to hit the hay. Good Night, Princess." he excuses himself and flops on the bed upstairs.
Zelda finishes her notes, and follows Link up, taking a seat at the desk. She spends some time reviewing her notes from the latest experiments. When she got drowsy enough she joined Link in the bed and let the sleep take her.
Zelda was the first to wake up the following morning. However, something was amiss... she was rarely the first to rise. Link was always the early bird. Looking over to his side of the bed, she notices a small bulge in the blankets. Curious, she pulled the blankets off. To her amazement, it was Link sound asleep. But it didn't look like the Link she came to know.
He looks to be 10 years younger... I should let him sleep. I don't know what else this potion has changed this time… Zelda thought.
Since she wasn't much of a cook, she fixed herself some eggs and toast for breakfast. As soon as Link smelled food cooking, he rose out of bed.
He was in a daze from oversleeping, so much so that he failed to see how much smaller he had truly become. It finally dawned on him when he reached the table, he was tall enough to just see over the table in the dining room.
"What happened to me? Why am I so small? Zelda!?" asked Link, sounding like a lost and confused child. He rushed over to his weapon mounts and hopped to look into his reflection from a shield. "I look so young again… and dear Hylia what happened to my voice!? Was this the potion's doing? But that means…" He slowly made a gap in his pants and looked down. Gods... even that too... He thought, and let out a sigh. This shouldn't be too bad... I hope...
"Okay, Link. Enough gawking at yourself." Zelda was trying to snap some sense into him. "Why don't you help me set the table?" She asked as she handed him a stack of plates and utensils.
This wasn't too easy, being 10 years younger meant he didn't have the strength he normally had. I guess I'm going to have to skip sword practice today. Link thought to himself, I bet my energy has been reduced too… He shrugged it off and tucked into his breakfast, he couldn't even finish his usual portion being a child.
So just for the fun of it, after Zelda helped him getting properly dressed, Link went off to the village to see how the townsfolk would react with a new child. I might get lucky and get extra stuff from the market~ Link thought amusingly.
It took him a bit longer to reach the town square with his shorter legs. Once he got there he wandered around till he decided to go to the general store to grab some truffles for dinner that evening. The shopkeeper raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything.
"Mister I'll take 15 of your truffles!" Link said charmingly as possible. He put on a glowing smile that could melt anyone's heart.
"Can you pay up kiddo?" The shopkeeper asked with a grin. "Did your parents give you enough spending money?"
"Sure did~ Here you go mister!" Link replied as he dug out the correct change and handed it over.
"I like your enthusiasm kid, here take another three on the house. But don't tell anyone." he said with a wink. The shopkeeper handed Link the truffles and watched Link skip out of the store.
This is actually fun~ Link thought. Maybe I should see what else I can do…
He spent the rest of the afternoon doing kid stuff that he wouldn't be caught dead doing normally. Climbing trees was a tiny bit easier. He got so muddy from chasing after frogs and fish in the pond downstream of the village. Even went as far as playing tag and hide-and-seek with the village children.
He returned to his house after the sun began to set, and nearly gave Zelda the fright of her life. She didn't spare him from the lecture that followed. After having her fill of the puppy dog eyes that followed her monologue, she drew a hot bath for him to clean up.
Link hopped into the wash basin, Zelda helped him scrub the mud off of his tiny body.
"Come in a join me!" he blurted out without thinking. "The water feels so great~" he sank back into the tub with a relaxed sigh.
The innocent way he had asked shot an arrow straight through Zelda's heart. She made her mind up, she was an adult, and he was currently just a child.
"All right, you don't need to beg." Zelda replied. She began to disrobe. "Um, turn around please?"
She shucked off her blue top and her pants into a pile on the ground. A moment later Zelda hopped in behind tiny Link, who was deep in relaxation.
Little Link had been beginning to get dizzy from the hot water, but his senses were jolted as she dipped in behind him. He closed his eyes and leaned back to rest his tired body against Zelda's bosom. Her skin was soft, and slightly cold to the touch.
This isn't so bad after all, he smiled. Link directed his attention to the sky above and watched the stars twinkle and the galaxy swirls of color.
Zelda herself could feel the stress melt off her body with the heat. Every muscle was relieved and relaxed. It didn't take her a second thought to close her eyes and relax. Next thing she knew was it started feeling a bit cramped. She opened her eyes to find that Link was back to normal again.
"Well, this is awkward." Link smiled sheepishly, followed by his signature head scratch. "Not the way I expected to return."
"Oooh! It's like minute rice! You know, that stuff the Sheikah developed to cut down cooking times. They cook the rice, dry it and reconstitute it with some hot water. It's faster than boiling a fresh batch!"
"So I'm instant rice now?" Link jests. "I think I've soaked enough so I'm going to get out."
"Alright," she said as she moves her sight to the sky to give him some privacy.
I've gotta remember this moment. Zelda mentally notes, Not just of the potion, but rather what happened because of the potion.
After hearing Link leaving the area, Zelda decided it was time to come out of her bath and extinguish the smoldering fire underneath. After the deed was done she headed to bed, and found Link up in the bed, sleeping soundly. She crawled in and cuddled up next to him.
"Good night, my sweet knight" she whispered to herself.
"Good night... princess..." Link said in his sleep, startling Zelda.