Chapter 9

Who doesn't know what I'm talking about,

Who's never left home, who's never struck out,

To find a dream and a life of their own,

A place in the clouds, a foundation of stone

We didn't find anything worth mentioning in the mountains. Just pain and destruction caused by Ganondorf's monsters. Link and Zelda had been working to get rid of the Dark Lord for some time, but their efforts didn't seem to make much of a difference.

Link took me to the little village that I had seen on my first day in Hyrule. His grandmother lived there, and he introduced me to her. She was a very sweet lady, and we got along very well. She offered me the spare room in her house, since I didn't have a place of my own, and I gladly accepted her offer. I think Link liked this arrangement better than me staying at the castle, and he made sure to stop by everyday to see how I was doing, but he had work to do, and he could only stay for a little while each time.

The spring weather was nice during the day, but it turned chilly at night. Sometimes the villagers would have a bonfire, and that was always fun. I settled into my new life easily, and I didn't regret being there. But sometimes I would find myself wondering about my friends. I was still concerned about what had happened to Steven, but at that point it seemed that I might never know what had happed to him. Thinking about that would always put me in a bad mood, and I would go off by myself a lot. Link found me on one of those days.

I was sitting in a small clearing in the woods, staring listlessly at the ground, when he came up behind me.

"What's wrong?" he asked as he put a hand on my shoulder. I jumped and had to fight back a scream, I hadn't heard him at all. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," he sat down next to me and tilted my face up so that he could look into my eyes. "Tell me what's bothering you, please."

"I…" tears started forming in my eyes (unlike the ones in the garden, these were not fake!) "I just really miss my friends." I started sobbing softly as he pulled me to him and gave me a hug.

We sat like that for a long time, him holding me and me sobbing into his shoulder. When I finally stopped crying, I started to push away from him, but then I changed my mind. I settled my head on his shoulder and closed my eyes. He just smiled and didn't say anything.

After that day, I would go to that spot if I was feeling homesick, and he would always show up, even if he wasn't anywhere near the village, somehow he just knew. We had become very close friends in a short amount of time, and I had a little bit of a crush on him. I think he liked me back, but I wasn't sure, and I never asked him, just in case he didn't. I didn't want things to be awkward between us.

Gradually the homesickness faded, and I didn't really feel it anymore. I felt like Hyrule was my home, and I was glad that I had gone there. My life had improved so dramatically that sometimes I still considered the possibility that I was dreaming. But eventually I stopped thinking about that, too.

I learned all kinds of things from the people there, and I was able to teach them some things, too. I found all kinds of opportunities, but none of them were what I really wanted to do. I wanted to travel with Link, and help him try to restore peace to Hyrule. But he was too stubborn to even consider it. He kept telling me that he didn't want me to get hurt, and I kept telling him that I wouldn't.

Eventually he gave in, just like I knew he would. I always got my way when I asked him for something.

Many precede and many will follow,

A young girl's dreams no longer hollow,

It takes the shape of a place out west,

But what it holds for her, she hasn't yet guessed

Song Lyrics: "Wide Open Spaces" by Dixie Chicks