Chapter 3


The twins were only a couple of years younger than us but you'd swear they weren't any older than eight with how young and short they looked. They wearing matching outfits consisting of overalls over patterned button-up shirts. While Kina's shirt was decorated with purple and blue diamonds, Kado's was covered in orange and green stripes.

"Are you sure it went into the forest?" Kina asked.

"Of course it did. Didn't you see it go that way too?" Kado replied.

"If I did, I wouldn't be asking." She shot back.

"Aren't you two supposed to be grounded or somethin'?" The twins almost jumped out of their shoes when Malon spoke up behind them.

Once they realized who had spoken their faces twisted into almost identical sneers. "Oh, great. The ranch girl found us." Kina spat out. "And she brought her babbling cousin with her." I winced at the stinging insult.

"How'd you know we were grounded? Did mom tell you to bring us back?" Kado demanded.

"As a matter of fact, she did." Malon admitted with her hands on her hips. "And that's where you'll be headin' if you know what's good for you."

"No way! We were just tryin' to stop that imp from stealing everyone's stuff but Mr. Ingo caught us and got us in trouble!" The brother claimed.

"Yeah! We ain't goin' back until we prove we were tellin' the truth!" The sister added.

"As if anyone's gonna believe that excuse."

As she said that I heard what sounded like giggling coming from the direction of the forest entrance and looked to investigate.

"Hey, Malon…" I tried to get her attention.

"But it's true! We really did see an imp runnin' off with everyone's stuff!" Kina insisted.

"Yeah and I'm the queen of Hyrule." Malon stated sarcastically. The giggling shifted into barely concealed laughter.

"Malon…" I said with more emphasis.

"We'll show you! The imp escaped into the forest! If we could find we could prove-" Kado exclaimed before Malon interrupted.

"Or you could go home instead of makin' up excuses that no one's gonna believe."

She was about to reach out and grab the twins by their arms before I shouted, "MALON!"

My sudden outburst startled her causing her to spin around and look at me as if I had suddenly transformed into a Deku Shrub. "Is somethin' the matter, Link?"

"Look." I said as I pointed at a tree not far from the forest entrance. She turned around to look where I was pointing and quickly discovered what I had found. Leaning back in the branches of a tree was a small creature wearing what looked like an effeminate jester costume with alternating colors of red and blue. It couldn't have been more than a couple feet tall and was laughing as if it had heard the best joke of its life.

Malon just stared at the creature for a couple of seconds before she mutter, "Goddesses be darned. They were tellin' the truth."

"See! We told you we weren't lyin'!" Kado shouted.

"Now we just gotta catch it and make it tell us where it took everyone's stuff!" Kina claimed.

It occurred to me then that if this 'imp' creature really was our mystery thief then the twins were right about having to catch it. There was just one problem though.

"Um, it's in the forest." I quietly said.

"Yeah?" Kado asked.

"So?" Kina continued.

"We aren't supposed to go into the forest." I pointed out.

"So what? It ain't like it's that far away from town." Kina countered.

"Yeah. I mean, it's right…" He turned to point at the imp only to pause as we all realized that the creature had hopped down from the tree and was now staring at us with a grin on its face. With what little sunlight was managing to get through the trees, it became apparent that the imp's skin had two different tones. The left half (from our perspective) was white like snow while the opposite side was a solid black. Its 'face' looked like it had been painted on. Each eye was nothing more than a solid circle of the opposite color of the side of the imp's skin it was on. Its 'mouth' was little more than a red crescent that gave the impression of a large grin and it's ears were long and pointed, much like a Hylian's.

As we continued to stare in silence the creature suddenly hopped around, bent over and tauntingly smacked it's butt a couple of times before it snapped its fingers and disappeared in a puff of smoke. When the smoke cleared barely a second later, we saw that the imp hadn't gone far. It was definitely much farther away than it was before but still visible to everyone present. Once again it taunted us and vanished in another puff of smoke.

"Wah- It's getting away!" Kado screamed.

"After it!" As soon as Kina finished that statement, she tore off after the imp with Kado not far behind.

"Hey, wait!" Malon tried to grab them before the left but missed and stumbled to her knees. She quickly got back to her feet and shouted back to me. "Link! We have to go after them!"

"But-" I tried to protest that we should get an adult to deal with this but she interrupted me.

"They could get hurt if we don't stop them! We have to bring them back before something bad happens!" and with that, she too ran into the forest.

I took a quick, hesitant look back in the direction of the town before I chased after everyone. We were running for several minutes before Malon tripped on a tree root and fell. I caught up to her and kneeled down to make sure she hadn't hurt herself. "Are you okay?" I asked a little out of breath.

"I, hah, fine." She tried to stand back up but fell back down in pain the moment she tried to put weight on her right leg. "Okay… not fine."

I looked on ahead to see if I could spot the twins. Unfortunately, they had gotten too far ahead for me to see them anymore. "Link… you need to… need to find them." she told me while trying to catch her breath.

"What about you?" I asked out of worry.

"I'll try to… get back to the village… and get some help." She took a deep breath as she looked around on the ground for something. Eventually her eyes landed on a decent sized tree branch nearby which she picked up. Using the branch as a makeshift crutch, she managed to pick herself back up to her feet.

"Malon…"

"I'll be fine, but someone needs to make sure those two don't do anything stupid."

"You mean besides chasing after an imp into a forest we've been told since we were children was dangerous?" I pointed out in an attempt to alleviate the tension.

"Yes, besides that." She said with a strained smile. "Go on. I'll get an adult to come after you guys as soon as I get back."

I took a slow couple of steps backwards, eyeing my cousin one last time to make sure she'd be okay. She was obviously relying heavily on that branch to keep her balance but beyond that seemed mostly unharmed. "…Be careful." I said.

"You too, okay?" Her face got solemnly serious then. "I mean it. I don't know what I would do if…" She couldn't finish her sentence but I got the message anyways.

With one last nod, I ran in the direction I had last seen Kina and Kado go. Fortunately, there was a path through the trees although it seemed like it was slightly overgrown. Judging from the foot prints in the dirt, I assumed that the twins had followed the imp along it which made it easier for me to track them down.

I soon found myself thank the all of the hard work I put into caring for the ranch every day. It helped me to build up my stamina and allowed me to keep running even as I felt my legs burning from the strain. I couldn't keep it up forever, though. Eventually I had to stop and catch my breath, leaning with my hand pressed against a nearby tree.

Not for the first time, I looked back the way I came. There was a clear trail of footprints where myself and the twins had been running, so at the very least I knew I'd be able to find my way back out.

I hope Malon made it back. I thought to myself. Returning my gaze to the trail before me, I had to wonder, Just how far did they go in? And how can they keep running like this?

I was just about to continue my search when I noticed a strange warmth on the back of my hand. When I went to examine it, I was surprised to find that the birthmark on my left hand had started glowing.

"Wh-what?" I could barely comprehend what it was that I was seeing. The trio of golden triangles shined softly like the setting sun; the filled-in lower left triangle shining the most. Slowly, almost hesitantly, I reached out to touch it…

Only for a pair of screams somewhere in the distance to snap me out of my reverie. Was that the twins!? I wondered in shock.

I looked at my birthmark again and discovered that it was indeed still glowing. I so badly wanted to understand just what this mysterious phenomenon was but my mind kept telling me that the twins could be in danger. I can solve this mystery later. The twins' safety comes first.

With that decided, I continued my run through the forest. Goddesses, please. Please don't let me be too late.


Author's Notes: Yeah! Action! The last chapter pretty much exists to set up the scene for this one. And this chapter exists to build up the hype for the one that comes after it. Now that we've come this far, the story can finally begin picking up momentum.

This next chapter is going to introduce several of the important story elements that are going to be driving this fic as well as reveal the first of my many major oc's I've created for the sake of this story. Hope you guys are as excited as I am for what's to come.