Lon Lon Labors

Link woke up in a bed he recognized as the one had jumped over onto the Bokoblin's back in his attempt to save Malon, a purple blanket over his body, and his trusty Sword beside him.

On his side there was a wooden nightstand where his Slingshot and Pouches rested, with a lamp on top, and a cover of white silk. The walls of the room where also white, and they had a beige and red trim running along their middle, with a couple of drawers to the front of the bed and to the left.

"Thank Hylia, You're awake!" Came Navi, who was sitting on the edge of the nightstand, worried sick about her friend "You took quite a beating down there."

"Glad to see you too, Navi." Said Link, taking his belt from the nightstand behind Navi and strapping it over his tunic below the sheets "No more of them came right?"

"No, that was it." She replied, smiling slightly, the joy of seeing her friend awake a relief in her heart "And Malon's alright, before you ask."

"I'm glad." He said, blowing out some air in relief.

"Hey, Link?" Navi continued "That was very brave, what you did. Blinding yourself to save Malon."

"More desperate than brave, from where I'm lying." Link kept on, starting to sit up straight "But at least she's safe now."

"It's not all about her, you know? You were quite injured as well."

"Yeah well, small price to pay for a life now, isn't it? Well, that and the Shield…"

"Mayhaps." Navi replied, still amazed at her boy's actions "But mayhaps you should have been more careful. You could have died, Link."

"I know." He said, taking off from the bed and strapping on his boots, which were coupled on the side of the bed "Sorry I worried you."

"It's alright." She said, finally starting to get used to the dangers they kept facing.

"Hey, Navi?" Link said, standing up and shaking his legs, as if to wake them from slumber "How do you reckon they got here?"

Navi put her arm on her shoulder like Link had seen her do before, her face, one of embarrassment and guilt.

"Well, Stalchildren hate the sunlight, so my guess is it followed us while we were coming here. And Bokoblins have a thing for bones so I guess it just followed the Stalchild here."

(If you're still wondering, reader, that was indeed the digging from two chapters back.).

"So, nothing would have happened if we hadn't stopped here?"

"Guess not."

"Well, ain't that a bitch." Link continued, the thought of Malon running for her life into the horse pen being their fault pounding his heart like a hammer "Well, at least no one got hurt."

"Yeah, none but you. Suppose that's a bright side." She said, looking at her friend with the sweetest of expressions, as if to ease the pain of her words "Hey, about what happened in the pen, you know, the whole 'Hear my name and tremble!' thing?"

"Oh, that." He continued, his face turning red and his mouth sprouting a smile "Well, there was a damsel in distress and all, and I was getting my ass handed to me, so I thought I'd try to scare the creature rather than prolong the situation. Though, admittedly I did want to show off a bit as well."

"Could have fooled me." Came another voice from the door, a glass of milk and a dish of scrambled eggs in Malon's delicate hands "How are you, Fairy Boy?"

"Right as rain in no time flat, Miss Romani." Link replied, grabbing the hilt of the Kokiri Blade and taking it from its sheath, passing his fingers through the silver edge of the ancient weapon.

"Glad to hear it." She replied, putting the glass and dish on the nightstand next to Navi, and kind of embarrassed about what she was about to ask "Navi? Could you leave us alone for a moment?"

Link almost dropped the Sword when he heard this, and Navi's face (since there is no other word to describe it) was simply priceless.

"Sure." She said, taking flight and heading for the door, a large smile on her face "I'll be just outside."

When Navi had closed the door behind her, Malon sat next to Link on the bedside, staring at her boots until she finally decided to speak.

"Sorry if this freaks you out." She said, her thumbs swirling one over the other "But I wanted to thank you properly."

"No thanks needed." Link said, sheathing his Blade, his heart racing "I did what I had to do. (Though I am going to miss the Shield.)."

"I know you did, Fairy Boy. But I want you to know that I'm eternally grateful to you, and that should you ever need a place to stay, we're here for you."

Link felt Malon's hand on his shoulder as she said this, her warm, soft fingertips on his cheek, and couldn't help but think that that was a moment he would like to live on.

'If only I could grow like you, Malon' He thought, sinking his eyes in hers 'If only I could.'

"Anyway, that's pretty much all I wanted to say." Malon said as she rose from the bedside, her face red as the sunset.

"And you have no idea how much it means to me, Malon." Link replied, feeling at home for the first time since he came out of the Great Deku Tree.

"Glad to be of service." She continued bowing in joke to her friend "And Fairy Boy?"

"Yes?"

"Thanks for saving me." She finished, planting a sweet, little kiss on Link's cheek, and smiling with the warmest of faces.

Malon left the room, her face still red, and beckoned Navi to go inside if she liked, which she immediately did, chuckling like there was no tomorrow.

"Nice one, 'Fairy Boy'." Navi said, mockingly "Not a week out of the Forest and you've already got a pretty girl standing in line."

"Shut up, Navi." Link answered, scratching his head, and unable to hide his grin.

"Hey, I'm just screwing with you." She said, happy to see her friend smile "But seriously now, you better eat up quick. The Cuccos are getting feisty and it seems mister Talon is going to need a little help getting them back in their pen."

"Very well." Link replied, taking the first bite off the Cucco eggs, after being done with the milk in one go "Tell him I'll go help him when I'm done."

A breakfast later, Link went down to the Cucco pen to help mister Romani with the rampaging animals, which he soon found out were quite fast and annoying to catch. He also found them to be extremely violent if provoked. (To this day he still has scars all over his body, constantly reminding him that Cuccos have sharp claws on the back of their talons and pretty hard beaks.).

After, catching the last of the Cuccos, Link finally managed to take a break from the whole Cucco-grabbing, and sat on the edge of a box in front of the window, next to mister Talon, who was also exhausted as Hell.

"Say, Link?" The man began, taking a sip from his bottle of milk "You're quite the cowboy, aren't you?"

"Why thank you, sire." Link replied, wiping the sweat from his brow "But Farore's Courage those things are tough!"

"Indeed they are, kid. But so are you." He continued, taking the bottle from his mouth and putting it to his side "You saved my daughter from those creatures yesterday and I can't thank you enough."

"Well, you did give us shelter when we needed it, so I guess now you could call us even."

And then, Link realized something in Talon's sentence he hadn't asked Navi back in Malon's room.

"Mister Romani?" He said, taking a look outside the window to see the birds singing and the sun high and bright, and realizing Talon had used the word 'yesterday' in his line "How long was I unconscious?"

"The whole of yesterday I'm afraid." Talon said, noticing as Link's face grew more worried by the word "We've had you on that bed for a while now. We even had to postpone our milk delivery to treat your wounds. I'm telling you kid, you got lucky."

"I'm sorry to hear that, sir." Link said, facing downwards, his heart filled with regret "But for what it's worth, thank you."

"Don't mention it, kid." Talon said, looking at Link as if he was his own son "But there's something I have to ask."

"Which would be what, exactly?"

"Well, my daughter seems to have taken a liking to you, and you seem like you could protect her from peril, should it ever arise again, so…"

The man trailed off, deep in thought, a face both of concern and certainty only a father can have.

"So what, sir?" Link asked, oblivious to the man's incoming question.

"Link." Talon resumed, his face more serious than Link had seen it thus far "Would you like to marry Malon?"

Link's hands could be heard cracking the box open from the other side of the Kokiri Forest, as Link's mind raced, faster than the swiftest arrow.

And then, after a while of awkward silence, Link calmed down, his worried face now calm and with a large smile upon it.

"Ah, why not?" He said, reading the man like a book "She's kind of amazing if I'm honest, so I guess we could make it work."

"You're surely joking?" Talon said, breaking into laughter.

"No, you are." Link replied, leaning back on the box and laughing his heart off "That's why I said 'yes'."

"Fair enough." The man said, starting to realize why his daughter liked the kid so much "But even still, you're both a little young for that, now aren't you? So maybe when you're older I'll ask again."

Link suddenly stopped laughing, the sudden realization a great burden in his mind.

"Sir, I'm from the Lost Woods." He said, looking out the window that was behind the box, staring at Navi and Malon, who were playing with the animals "We 'Forest Folk'… we can't grow up, sir."

"What do you mean you can't grow up?" Talon asked, his pointy ears wide open in intrigue.

"I mean, we Kokiri stay children forever." He said, Talon's face immediately turning into one of deepest pity "We don't age, so we don't have families aside from each other and our Fairies."

The house fell silent, the two staying still as the wind around them. Even the Cuccos had stopped bickering, as Link stood from the crate, and headed for the door.

"Eh, kid?" Talon's voice intervened, stopping Link on his tracks "Go have some fun with the gals while I help mister Ingo set up the wagon."

"Will do, sir." Link replied, grabbing the copper doorknob.

And with that, he stepped out of the house and headed for the horse pen, the unsettling conversation still ringing strong on his ears.

"Oh, there you are Fairy Boy!" Came Malon's cheery voice as he came closer to the pen's fence "How was the Cucco catching?"

"Quite painful, to be honest." Link answered, faking a smile "But we managed to catch em' all eventually." (Yep, I just did that.).

"Glad to hear it." She replied, remembering something she had wanted to do for a while "Oh! That's right! You don't know my friend yet, do you, Fairy Boy?"

And after saying that, she put her hands over her chest, as if forming a cross, and started humming a tune so lovely and calm, Link's troubles and worries seemed miles away.

And after a few seconds of this, a brown, white-trimmed filly with a white tail came galloping to Malon's side as fast as her legs would take her.

"Miss Navi, Fairy Boy, meet Epona." Malon said, scratching Epona's white trim with one hand and holding her face lifted with the other "She and I have been friends since we were young. Isn't she cute?"

Link couldn't feel anything but wonder at the creature, though he soon noticed this feeling wasn't mutual, for when he tried to come close to Epona, the young mare sped off to the side of the pen.

"She's like that towards strangers. She doesn't really feel safe around many people, you see." Malon explained, giving Link an idea.

"Malon?" Link asked, finding a way to befriend the filly "Could you hum that song again? A little slower if you please."

And before Malon started singing, Link took out Saria's Fairy Ocarina (please don't ask from where, because I don't know) and held it to his lips. He tried to follow every note on the tune Malon had been humming for a while, until he finally got it right and the filly came galloping back, this time launching herself into Link's embrace rather than Malon's.

"Oh, Epona!" Malon exclaimed, noticing how odd it was for her four-legged friend to get so attached to someone in such a short amount of time "She's grown quite fond of you Fairy Boy!"

"Well, well." Said Navi, a mocking smile on her face "It seems you've got quite a way with the ladies, eh Link?"

"What can I say? I've got one of those faces." Link replied, scratching the white trim on Epona's head, realizing what a truly amazing creature she was.

"You know?" Malon said, her hand also on Epona's head "I've never taught that song to anyone. Would it be okay if it stayed between us?"

"Why's that?" Asked Navi.

"Well, you saw how she reacted to the song, and I don't want her speeding off with just anyone."

"Fair enough." Link replied, taking a liking to the creature "'Epona's Song' stays between us."

Link, Malon and Navi went on for a while and played with the animals, until they got to the cows that had their own pen at the side of the horses'. They were petting a white, blue-spotted cow Malon had named Elsie, when Malon remembered to ask the protagonist something that had been bothering her for days.

"Hey, Fairy Boy?" She began, looking at Link with a confused face "Why did my father say he couldn't help you with the hay bales in the tower when you first came here?"

"He said he was tired from all the working on the ranch." Link replied, wondering what had begged the question.

"Work?!" She exclaimed "My Dad?! Yeah, like I'm going to believe that. That Cucco catching you did with him? That's the only thing he's going to do for the rest of the month! (Aside from sleeping obviously.). "

"I couldn't have said that better myself, Miss Romani." Came a voice neither Link nor Navi had heard before from behind them "I swear we're the only ones doing any work in this place."

"Oh, Mister Ingo!" Malon said, finally revealing the man behind the name the duo had been hearing during their stay in the ranch.

Ingo Gorman was a tall, grumpy man with a huge nose. He had short, brown hair and a bushy, brown mustache to match, along with a pair of dark, blue eyes and thick, bushy eyebrows. He was wearing a pink overall over his sleeveless, green shirt and, like the Romanis, a pair of big, brown boots.

"I say," The man said "One day, I'm going to kick Talon out of here and call this place 'Ingo Ranch'. (No offense meant, little miss.)."

"And no offense taken, mister Ingo." Malon replied, giggling slightly, and acknowledging how lazy her father actually was "But I'd advise against saying something like that out loud."

"And I would accept that advice gladly." Ingo said, a smile on his face "Anyway, the wagon's ready, kid. So if you want to get to Hyrule before nightfall, now's the time."

Link nodded in approval and headed alongside Malon and Navi towards the exit of the ranch, not before taking a last, long look at Epona and the animals in it.